Okay, I did it for real this time. (If I write my final article tomorrow, that is.)

I’m not saying that last year’s 60-day writing challenge didn’t count, but I definitely took some liberties with it. I definitely missed some days and did a really weird and overly complicated thing where I added two extra days for every day missed, and even when I did post, a lot of them were really low-effort. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still incredibly proud of that accomplishment, but at the same time, I recognize that I cut some corners.

I think it’s fair to say that I didn’t cut as many corners this time around.

Days when I put up a low-effort post were rare, and there are only a handful of posts that I didn’t end up liking: day two’s article on Ready Player Onethat a commenter made such a good argument against that I now completely changed my mind; day 18’s article comparing Horizon Zero Dawn to The Last of Us with a subject that I didn’t really think was that interesting in hindsight; day 27’s post about finding motivation that was one of the only low-effort posts I made because I had a splitting headache while writing it; and day 45’s article on finding a job that I felt was a bit too whiny. But that’s five articles out of (hopefully) 60, and it’s not like I’m ashamed of them; they’re just not my best work.

However, there are also plenty of articles I wrote that I’m really proud of: day four’s article on winning a Mario Tennis Aces tournament was perhaps the funniest thing I’ve written; day 18’s article on my dad and video games really affected him, day 34’s article on throwing out nearly 100 amiibo boxes was extremely cathartic, and day 55’s and 58’s articles on completing Xenoblade Chronicles Xand The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, respectively, were great excuses to take nice long trips down memory lane. Additionally, I’m particularly proud of running three series throughout these 60 days: eight articles predicting or covering games announced or released around E3, eight articles on each of the eight shows I acted in during high school, and, my most ambitious series, nine articles (counting the retrospective) reviewing 22 different games after an hour with each.

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And I haven’t only been writing for TAY during this event! I published my last review for KeenGamer on the first day of this SixTAY Days of Writing, and wrote two articles for Cliqist, an indie website I’m now writing for! And that doesn’t even count the job applications and resumes I’ve written, nor the preparation for college, family outings, and generally keeping myself healthy. I acknowledge that my schedule is probably more free than most people part of this challenge, but I also have far from nothing else to do. Heck, I’m carrying heavy stuff for eight hours tomorrow, on the last day of SixTAY Days of Writing!

Let’s go into some statistics, shall we?

Word count:

Day 1: 499

Day 2: 1084

Day 3: 371

Day 4: 1599

Day 5: 114

Day 6: 623

Day 7: 612

Day 8: 499

Day 9: 500

Day 10: 455

Day 11: 500

Day 12: 888

Day 13: 700

Day 14: 661

Day 15: 933

Day 16: 664

Day 17: 869

Day 18: 612

Day 19: 838

Day 20: 1177

Day 21: 1065

Day 22: 1201

Day 23: 736

Day 24: 981

Day 25: 879

Day 26: 502

Day 27: 336

Day 28: 764

Day 29: 2957

Day 30: 592

Day 31: 623

Day 32: 694

Day 33: 707

Day 34: 604

Day 35: 778

Day 36: 990

Day 37: 1415

Day 38: 792

Day 39: 668

Day 40: 814

Day 41: 657

Day 42: 833

Day 43: 698

Day 44: 911

Day 45: 881

Day 46: 883

Day 47: 1304

Day 48: 960

Day 49: 283

Day 50: 365

Day 51: 782

Day 52: 436

Day 53: 250

Day 54: 1349

Day 55: 1009

Day 56: 1514

Day 57: 960

Day 58: 2299

Day 59: 1014

Day 60: ???

Average: 828

Total: 49,684

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America classify a novel as any work over 40,000 words. Now of course, it’s much harder to put together one piece of work with its own plot and characters than it is to write a series of articles. However, purely in terms of length, it fits that criterion. If I were to print out each article with each page having 350 words, it would be 142 pages long, likely closer to 150 due to page breaks and any photos or screenshots.

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Any way you slice it, that’s a lot of words, and I think it’s fair to give myself a pat or two on the back. Humility is certainly a virtue, but I don’t think pride is a sin (or moral failing) if it isn’t excessive or unwarranted, and that’s true for anything. I’m proud of improving both the quality and quantity of my writing, and I’m proud to have in some way encouraged many of you to do the same.

I’ve made it clear in past articles that it is my dream to be a video game journalist. In some ways, I’ve already fulfilled that in an ameteur sense, receiving review copies games and landing my first paying job with Cliqist.

But it’s also very apparent that I have a long way to go. As proud as I am of how my writing style has evolved, there’s still a significant contrast between my own work and that of professionals, as should be expected. Instead of intimidating me, this excites me! I have so much to learn and so much to do, and I’m going to enjoy every second of it.

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In two days, I will turn 18, becoming a legal adult. I’m honored to have this successful run of SixTAY Days of Writing be my final accomplishment as a minor, and can’t wait to see what I can accomplish!